Telangana finance minister presents state budget; ₹1,000 crore for new medical colleges

Telangana finance Minister T Harish Rao on March 7 presented the state Budget for 2022-23 in the state legislature with an outlay of ₹2,56,958 crore, including ₹17,700 crore for its new flagship scheme Dalit Bandhu for the empowerment of Dalits in the state.

In sync with the recent demand for more medical colleges, the finance minister has said that every district in Telangana, over the next two years, will receive a government medical college. ₹1,000 crore has been allocated for the establishment of new medical colleges in Medak, Medchal, Rangareddy, Mulugu, Warangal, Narayanpet and Gadwal districts. The state currently has 17 government medical colleges.

Moreover, super specialty, 1,000 bed hospitals will come up on four sides of Hyderabad – Gachibowli, Erragadda, LB Nagar and Alwal, collectively known as the Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences. The per capita expenditure on healthcare in Telangana stands at ₹1,698 as revealed by the Centre recently.

State’s first university for women

The budget has proposed ₹100 crores towards developing the state’s first university for women. “Women have to be in the forefront of higher education too,” said the finance minister. Finance minister also announced that the KCR Nutrition Kits will be allotted to 1.25 lakh malnourished/undernourished pregnant women and lactating mothers every year in Adilabad, Kumran Bheem, Bhadradri, Bhupalapally, Kamareddy, Vikarabad, Mulugu, Gadwal, and Kurnool districts.

Municipal corporations and municipalities, which currently have 256 functioning basti dawakhanas, will receive 60 new basti dawakhanas. The finance minister said that a total of 350 dawakhanas will get functional in Hyderabad.

The total cultivated area in Telangana is all set to be increased to 2.09 crore acres in 2020-21 from 1.31 crore acres in 2014-15, with the help of Mission Kakatiya, irrigation projects and Rythu Bandh, he said.

Also read: War of words over Budget session without Governor’s address

The government has spent ₹50,448 crore on Rythu Bandhu, investment support to farmers, given at ₹10,000 per acre per year to about 63 lakh farmers.

Under Rythu Bandhu, group life insurance cover will be provided to landholding farmers, 75,501 families will get insurance benefit of ₹3,775 crore so far at ₹5 lakh per family, in the event of death of landholding farmer irrespective of the cause of death. The budget also proposed an insurance scheme for all handloom and power loom workers just as Rythu Bhima with the sum of ₹5 lakhs for the next financial year.

The finance minister has said that he has increased the Arogyasri scheme from ₹2lakh to ₹5lakh. Arogyasri scheme is used for helping above poverty line families from high-end expensive health expenditure. Moreover, a total of 4 lakh beneficiaries are to be given ₹3 lakh each for construction houses in their sites in 2022-23 at the rate of 3,000 per Assembly segment.

IT exports from Telangana valued at ₹1,45,522 crore in 2021 is growing at a rate of 12.98 per cent, said the finance minister.

On metro rail to Old City, the Telangana government repeated that steps are being taken to extend the last 5.5 km stretch. The government further mentioned that the delay is because of the presence of heritage buildings and places of worship.

The Telangana government has allocated ₹2,750 crores to Kalyana Lakshmi and Shaadi Mubarak schemes. While ₹ 9,315 crore has been allocated to the Telangana police department in the budget. This accounts for three per cent of the total budget for 2022-23.

Stating that the crime rate has reduced drastically, the government has invested in installing 7.7 lakh CCTV cameras, said the finance minister.

In an unprecedented and controversial move, the Telangana government conducted the budget session of the state legislature without the mandatory address by Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan.